I collected baseball cards from the late '80s through 2002. Then I went to college and when I came out, I was lost. There were too many brands, sets, choices, relics, autos, parallels, variations. It was a turn off. However, I slowly made my way back.
So here is my attempt to venture back into the hobby. I'll buy a few packs of cards here and there, comment on some cards I have, send out some TTMs, and follow the progress of my Topps Yankees Project.

Tabs

Friday, August 31, 2012

I received my group break loot from the The Daily Dimwit's July group break in...well, July. But I got it right before I moved, so I didn't post anything about it. I moved 31 days ago, and I'm still using my move to blame my lack of blogging. Impressive.

Out of the 15 promised hits, I snagged two of 'em. Not too bad at all! I scored a cool Posada relic, and a Frankie Cervelli on-card auto. I hadn't been able to get him TTM, so this will do.

I also included a 2009 Topps Unique Jeter. I hadn't heard of this set. The cards were pretty cool. I'm not usually a fan of so much black, but these look pretty striking.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

In the late ‘90s, I bought a lot of Fleer. They were middle
of the line – somewhere between Score and Upper Deck. I usually ranked them
right alongside the Topps flagship in terms or price and quality. The cards
were usually designed decently, and there were fun insert sets.

This particular Tino is from 1999 Fleer. It’s the Warning
Track parallel, seeded at 1 per retail pack. Interestingly, the back of the
card has a “W” next to the number to signify the set. You’d think the red foul
and stamp would be obvious enough, but I like the differentiation.

The image itself is decent. Full-sized, border-less shot with
Tino just about to make contact. I wish the ball wasn’t covered up by his name.
Speaking of which, I like the vertical block letters. The script team name is a
little jarring, but overall it works.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Paul from Carl Crawford Cards and I have had a great time this summer discussing the Charleston Riverdogs. Spending most of his summer in Charleston, Paul attended many games, including the All Star game and fanfast, and sent me some truly sweet autos. While Paul got to see the players firsthand, I could provide him with what I knew about the prospects he was watching and how they were regarded in the Yankees organization.

At one of his last games for the summer, Paul was able to secure two more autographs for me. One was of hefty masher Saxon Butler, a DH/1B our of Samford taken in the 33rd round of this year's draft. He was a college senior, so it's no surprise he outhit rookie ball and was assigned to A ball.

The second auto was an interesting bullpen arm - Nick Goody. Goody was taken by the Yanks in the 22nd round last year, didn't sign, and they took him again this year - in the sixth! He was LSU's closer this year, and should move pretty quickly through the system.

Paul, this autos are sweet. Thanks again for hooking me up this summer.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

...the Greg Bird, that is. I haven’t done much browsing on eBay
lately, and when I recently did I saw that there were a lot of 2012 Bowman
Platinum Yankees cards that I didn’t have. One of them was this sweet on-card
auto of Yankees prospect Greg Bird. I scored it on eBay for a few bucks
delivered. A fifth-rounder last year, Bird has played 15 games this year with
the GCL Yankees. He’s got a big bat, and the Yankees are keeping him at catcher
for now. He was committed to Arkansas (sorry, Doon), but the Yanks lured him away with a seven-figure signing bonus.

The card itself is pretty sweet. This is the Refractor
version. It has a nice-sized area for the signature, but Bird’s massive ‘graph
still doesn’t fit and he signed over part of his arm. I love that these are
on-card autos. Very sharp looking, if I do say so myself.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

When my DoonDiscs arrived, I ran to the mailbox with more enthusiasm than this guy when the new phonebooks arrived:

I had been eagerly awaiting my shipment of DoonDiscs, and my lackluster performance blogging over the past month truly called for it. I have been suffering from a lack of energy, lack of inspiration, and overall lack of time. One DoonDisc changed that. I'm not sure what would happen if I used two. I don't even want to know. The FDA definitely would not approve.

Also included was this sweet Derek Jeter die cut card. It was my, "But wait! Call now and receive a free gift!" bonus. Oh, and Derek Jeter is now 1,000 hits behind Pete Rose. Interesting, no?

Doon, thank you for the shipment. I will be ordering more for my family around Christmas-time.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Kirk from Eutaw Street Cardboard recently sent me a little under
100 Tino cards. I purchased them from him in his effort to raise money for The
National. There were a lot of a great Tinos in there, and a good portion which
were new to my collection.

Here is one of those Tinos. It’s from 1994 Upper Deck, and
it’s an Electric Diamond parallel. Upper Deck always had such cool names for
things. Electric Diamond. I feel like every time I say “electric diamond” there
should be a few sweet notes played on the electric guitar afterwards. “Electric
diamond” bah nah nah neeeeer.

I don’t love the design of ’94 Upper Deck. The black and
white repetitive photo is a little weird. The image is pretty cool though. I
think it looks like Tino is diving back into first base, perhaps to avoid a
pickoff attempt. I am nearly certain it’s a spring training shot, which I found
a lot of Tino’s 1990s Upper Deck releases to be.

I do, however, like the shiny foul of “Electric Diamond”
baaah neeh naaah neeeeeryyyyaooow.

Friday, August 10, 2012

I seriously have done very little of anything card-related for the past month or so. As I mentioned earlier, I moved, which meant packing up my cards and not buying new ones because it would just be one more thing to move.

I did however make a cheap eBay purchase, and the seller was very slow to ship it. So much so, that it was forwarded to my new address. Behold:

It's a 2000 Pacific Latinos of the Majors insert. I think I paid like $.50 shipped for it. It's a neat card. Very shiny and flashy. Some of my cooler Tino's are from the Latinos of the Majors sets.

Hopefully this is the start of many more cards finding their way to my new place! Now I just have to figure out where to put them...

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

In the midst of my move last week, I failed to post a Tino
Tuesday. I wanted to, even had the card scanned and saved, but I just never got
around to it. I’m sure not many missed it, but I like having some sort of
schedule on the blog.

I can’t lie, I’m posting this card because it’s so ugly I
want to get it out of the way so that I don’t have to feature it again. 1991
Donruss. I haven’t met many people, other than Napkin Doon, who like 1990 or
1991 Donruss. This is actually Tino’s first Donruss card, and he has “Rated
Rookie” status. He actually is a “Rated Rookie” in 1992 too, even though he was
no longer qualified as a Rookie due to his plate appearances in 1991.

Onto the card. I like blue cards. I do. Most of the time.
The random stripes and dots are a little much, and the colors are too loud and
clash. I’m not going to hard on it too much. It’s just not an attractive card.

The shot of Tino is definitely from spring training,
although I’m not sure which year. His helmet says #53, but he never wore that
number with Mariners in the Majors. He wore 14 and then 23. My guess is that
this was taken during the spring of 1990. I do like that he was wearing real
stirrups, and the classic Franklin batting gloves.

If anyone would ever like a copy of this card, let me know,
as I have at least 600 of them.

Friday, August 3, 2012

One might say I’ve been a “lost” collector lately. Get it? See what
I did there? Truth be told, I’ve had a lot going on the last few weeks and
haven’t had much of a chance to blog. The biggest time stealer is that I have
moved from New York City to Hoboken, NJ. Therefore, please make sure you get my
new address if we have a trade in the works or you want to send me those disgusting, unwanted Yankee cards.

I’ll still be working in NYC every day. Hoboken is literally just
across the Hudson, so it’s a very quick commute. But it’s a bit more of a family-friendly city, so it was a good move for us. It's a step closer to the suburbs, and that's the end goal in a few years.

I’ve also transitioned to a new role at work, so that has
kept me really busy for the past two weeks. I still have the same job title in the same department, just new
responsibilities.

I haven’t had a ton of time (or budget) for picking up new
cards or blogging about them, but I have still have been reading blogs on most
days. Just wanted to say that I’m still around, just a lot busier than normal.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

It’s really hard to say what the three most prized
possessions in my collection are. Only two things jumped out, so I really had
to think hard about the third.

The first is my Tino Martinez TTM collection. He is my
favorite player of all-time, and I’ve gotten him to sign twice for me TTM,
about 12 years apart. Here’s the latest.

My second most prized possesion is this beat up 1967 Topps Mickey
Mantle. I wanted an original Topps Mantle for years, and finally splurged on
this one. Yeah, it’s beat-up, but how else could I afford it? I still think it’s
super cool to own.

Hmm, what to choose for third? There’s my Topps Yankees Project.
That’s pretty damn cool and unique, in my opinion. However, I went with my
ticket stub from the 2009 World Series Game Six. The Yanks clinched their 27th
World Series Championship that night, and I was in attendance. Not many fans
are fortunate enough to see their team clinch a championship in person, and
this is a moment I’ll never forget. Being at the game was surreal, and I’ll
always remember the feeling as the outs started to tick away, especially as it
got to single digits. Nines to go, eight, seven…I just kept wishing for the
Yankees offense to make outs so the defense could get back out there. When the
final out was made – a ground ball to Robinson Cano who threw to Mark Teixeira,
I remember not jumping up and down right away because I wanted to see the
players all mob each other. Once they did, I let myself go a bit and celebrated
with fellow fans. I stuck around and watched the team take a victory lap. When
I made it outside, the fans were everywhere in the streets going crazy. I
remember a shirtless guy climbing a telephone pole…and it was about 30 degrees
out. I finally made my way to the subway and headed home, but didn’t sleep well
that night from all of the excitement.